BIOACTIVITY OF BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS, CONOCARPUS AND OLEANDER EXTRACTS AGAINST THE WAX WORM, GALLERIA MELLONELLA L.

This study was conducted in the entomology laboratory of the Department of Bio-control, AL-Musayyib Technical College and under laboratory conditions to investigate the biological activity of Bacillus thuringiensis and plant extracts against the wax worm Galleria mellonella. 110 soil samples were collected from different areas in Babylon governorate and the presence of B. thuringiensis was investigated in the examined soil samples. As the number of samples that contained B. thuringiensis bacteria was 67 samples out of the total samples that were examined. The results of the current study revealed that alcoholic and aqueous extract of Oleander had a clear effect on the biological activity of the larval great wax worm as the concentration (0.75mg/L-1) significantly outperformed all the concentration used in the research experiment and recorded the highest rate of (74.9 %). The results showed that alcoholic and aqueous extract of Conocarpus had a clear effect on the biological activity of the larval great wax worm. The concentration (0.75 mg/L-1) revealed high average by effect on the mortality of the larval great wax worm was (73.3%). When using different concentrations of the B. thuringiensis and testing its effectiveness on the larval great wax worm. The concentration (10(-2)) showed high average by effect of using bacterial concentrations on the mortality of the larvae of the great wax worm was 76.7 %.